Worth the Wait
by vampireisthenewblack
Summary: I came here out of a desperate need for something different. I expected to feel out of place. I didn't expect to be skipping through the darkened streets of Volterra with a 1500 year old vampire who looked—and acted—like he was fifteen. AU VampSlash NC-17


**Worth the Wait**

by **vampireisthenewblack**

_This work of fanfiction is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License._

**Summary:** I came here out of a desperate need for something different. I expected to feel out of place. I didn't expect to be skipping through the darkened streets of Volterra with a 1500 year old vampire who looked—and acted—like he was fifteen. AU VampSlash, NC-17

**A/N:** Written for the second round of the Twilight No Stress Love Fest. The prompt was:

_Edward's tired of spending summers alone. Without the distraction of school to fill the days, all he ever does is read or play his piano while his family pairs off and does their own thing. Perhaps it's time for him to reconsider Aro's offer. Or, at least spend a summer with the Volturi to see how he would fit in while trying to maintain his "special diet." But, of course, he's going to need someone to show him around while he's there and teach him the rules. They can each learn a little bit from each other, while figuring themselves out along the way._

The story occurs in a post New Moon timeline in an AU where Bella never moved to Forks. God only knows why Edward went to Volterra in New Moon anyway, but hey, lets just suspend our disbelief, shall we? In other suspensions, I've aged Alec a little from canon, for the purposes of this fic he was 15-16 years old when he was changed. Also for the purposes of the story, Edward is sometimes a little more emotionally youthful than in canon. I'm just fucking with canon all over the place :) Oh, the freedom! Oh yeah, this is total fluff, at least by vamp standards.

**Warnings: **Underage sexual activity… kind of. But not really. I mean, there is sex, but whether or not it's underage is subjective. Oh, and it's mostly gratuitous.

**Thanks:** venis-envy, for giving a prompt she knew I wouldn't be able to resist; to sapphirescribe, for doing a marvellous preread for me; and to my wonderful beta, Dellaterra.

* * *

><p>I look across the chamber at the vampire Aro has decided shall be my guide and companion while I am here with the Volturi. He looks back, unsmiling, but he nods politely. His thoughts are muted, formless, and I cannot make sense of them.<p>

Aro thinks we will get on well because we are so close in age. He's wrong. Alec became a vampire fourteen centuries before I did, but Aro is not referring to our chronological ages.

* * *

><p>"Is it acceptable?" he asks.<p>

I look at the chamber I've been offered. It's smaller than my room at home. The walls are ancient stone, hung with priceless tapestries. There is a couch, a bookcase, a writing desk and a chair.

"It's fine," I say.

He's wearing a very serious expression, and I wonder if he is always so quiet. If I'm to spend the next three months in his company, I'd rather our interactions be more than mere civilities. It's usually so effortless for me to interact with others, but his mind gives me no clues.

Emmett can make anyone smile. I've never thought much of it before, but I envy him now. If I could just get Alec to smile...

I attempt a joke. "I bet it gets cold down here at night."

My weak attempt at vampire humour doesn't seem to have an effect. Alec's face is as immobile as before. "I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding companionship while you are here."

As he turns to go, I see a flicker in his mind of Heidi's hungry gaze as I was introduced to the Guard.

"Oh. I didn't mean... I'm not interested in that."

He stops and turns, and his eyes sweep over me. _Everyone's interested in sex_, he thinks, _except Jane and me_.

"I'm not." I think of Esme, and her fear that I was changed too young, and I let out a nervous laugh.

Alec's brows draw together and his eyes narrow as he watches me. Then his face relaxes, and he allows himself a small smile.

* * *

><p>Alec giggles as he twists out of my reach and runs—at human pace—up the lane and around the corner.<p>

"You're such a child, Alec," I laugh, and skip to catch up with him.

His thoughts tighten into vague annoyance and I immediately stop my pursuit. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean—"

He drops his eyes and shakes his head. "I know." _The others, though..._"I'm older than so many of them." He gives me a wry grin. "But I'll never be a grown-up."

I place my hand on his shoulder, and the gesture reminds me of Carlisle. "It's okay. Neither will I."

Scarlet eyes move over me, slowly dropping from my face to my chest, and he tips his head to the side as his gaze moves further. "You look like a man." His mind is incomprehensible. He has the ability to scramble his thoughts—developed over centuries in service to a mind reader—and it frustrates me.

I shrug. "I don't always act like it. I'm impulsive. I lose my temper and I sulk."

Alec grins. "So Edward Cullen is human after all," he says, then twists away out of my grip.

"What?" I laugh, and give chase again.

* * *

><p>I imagine I would miss my family more did I not have Alec's constant companionship. He reminds me of Emmett when he is playful, and Jasper when he is serious. While I miss Carlisle and his constant calm, I don't miss his pride in me. I feel freer here, as if I do not constantly have to watch myself in case I disappoint him.<p>

I miss the glimpses of the future that Alice provides, but I have told her not to contact me unless someone wishes me harm.

* * *

><p>"Come with me," I insist.<p>

Alec wrinkles his nose. "I'd rather not. Anyway, I just ate."

The smell of fresh human blood on him makes my throat burn with a fire I've not felt in decades. "I'm not asking you to hunt with me, just come. Let's get out of the city for a day or two."

Alec narrows his eyes and glares up at me. "I won't have to drink any... wildlife?"

"I won't ask you to do anything you don't want to do."

A slow smile spreads over his face as he thinks about watching me hunt. In his imagination I take down a great stag and tear into it, spilling blood everywhere.

"You're disgusting," I say, and shove at him as he laughs at me.

* * *

><p>I've never had a friend who was just that before. Carlisle is my mentor, my father. Emmett and Jasper are my brothers, Alice my sister. Never has there been someone who makes no demands on me, does not try to instruct me, does not complain about my quietness or my loud music or my lack of interest in the opposite sex.<p>

When I came here, it was out of a desperate need for something different, something akin to the rebellion of my youth. I expected to feel out of place, as if I didn't fit in. Instead I have found something that makes me truly happy. Together we sit quietly and read. We discuss literature, music, politics. We trade insults and experiences, stories about our lives that have so many similarities. We laugh together, explore together.

I'm happier than I've been in decades.

* * *

><p>I leave Alec behind me as I catch the scent of the doe and give chase. He doesn't catch up until I have her in my arms, and I take great delight in proving to him that I can feed without spilling a single drop.<p>

I'm still a little wild when I come up for air. He's clapping slowly, teasing me with a cheeky grin on his face. Without thinking I leap for him and with my arms tight around him we both tumble into the brush and scrub of the forest floor.

We come to a stop at the base of a tree. I brace myself, ready to be thrown off, but he lays beneath me relaxed and chuckling softly. The sound is low, a little dangerous, and he opens eyes that have darkened a little from the glaring red they were before.

I should move, but I don't. His laughter stops, and he stares up at me with a smile on his face.

_He smells so good,_ Alec thinks, and something makes me lean closer as I inhale, overcome by an urge to see if I like his scent too.

It is ancient, but fresh and pure, like a churchyard in springtime. My body reacts in a way I've never felt before and I shift myself off him quickly. Leaping to my feet, I scent a stag to the north, and I run.

* * *

><p>Alec watches me as I write. The Volturi are no strangers to modern technology but Carlisle prefers tangible forms of correspondence.<p>

I am conscious of the fact that Alec can read every word as my pen flies across the page, telling my maker how I have been treated and the things I have been doing.

As I answer the question Carlisle posed in his last letter, I pause to think.

"Would you like me to leave?" Alec asks.

I look up. "What? No, of course not. I really haven't decided whether or not I'll be staying yet."

_I hope you will._

I smile. "I know. But I have weeks yet. I don't have to decide right away."

"Do you miss your family?" Alec asks, his eyes dropping down to the floor. He stands against the wall, his posture casual and relaxed.

"I don't miss them as much as I expected."

His eyes flick up to mine and he looks at me from beneath long, dark eyelashes. "Will you miss me if you leave?"

"I'm sure of it."

"And would you stay if I were not here?"

"Unlikely."

A slow smile spreads across his youthful face, and he lifts his chin in a gesture that looks for all the world like preening. "I knew it."

I blink. "What?"

"That your decision would come down to me. To our friendship."

"You're conceited," I say, and bend my head again to my letter.

"Why shouldn't I be? We're perfect together, Edward."

He is right, of course, but he has no idea how I truly feel.

* * *

><p>I stand to Alec's right. I am a mere observer in this gathering. Alec is a true member of the Volturi Guard, and he is here for a reason. I am nothing, and so when Aro addresses me, I am surprised.<p>

I understand immediately. He's giving me a taste of what it will be like for me if I should accept his offer of a place in the Guard, how decisions—perhaps lives— could be in my power.

I understand why Aro has not deigned to descend from his throne to touch the vampire knelt before him and read his thoughts.

I am to do it for him.

"He's telling the truth," I whisper.

Aro smiles. "What do you think, Edward? Should I grant him the mercy for which he begs?"

I lift my chin and do not break Aro's gaze. "Yes."

He nods once and shifts his focus, not to the prisoner on the floor, but instead to my friend beside me. "Alec," he says. "If you would?"

Nothing happens for long moments in which I keep my expression carefully blank, then I watch as the vampire on the floor sways. His eyes glaze over, unseeing, and his fingers flex and search the air around him. He doesn't understand what is happening, and he panics, but before he can react, Felix removes his head.

* * *

><p>"It was the best he could have hoped for, Edward."<p>

Alec sits calmly on the couch in my room, as I pace the floor behind him.

"There was nothing you could have done."

I stop pacing and stare at the back of Alec's head. "I can't do this."

He twists and looks up at me. "Do you think Aro would have granted that man mercy if you had not asked for it?" He turns his face away again. "Stop blaming yourself, Edward, as if I had no part in it, as if Felix did not, as if Aro had not ordered it."

He is calm, perfectly composed, and yet all the time his mind chants_please don't leave me_ over and over again. Outwardly, he is ancient and detached; inside he is so young and vulnerable.

I slide onto the couch beside him, but he won't look at me.

"Alec," I whisper. "If I have to leave, it won't be because of you."

"Why not?" he snaps. "You'll leave us for the same reason your maker did. Because you cannot bear the thought of feeding on human life. You cannot even bear to be a part of the punishment that was due that vampire after he broke the law, Edward." He spreads his fingers over his chest, and his voice drops. "I am a part of that. I have been since the moment I opened my eyes to this life. How can you even bear to look at me, when all you see is the proof of it every time you do?"

I look into his eyes, wide, frightened, and blood red. "That's not what I see," I muse, as I cup his face in my hand, thread my fingers through his hair and brush the pad of my thumb over his eyebrow. The fear in his eyes turns to surprise and pleasure. I feel warm all over, and the horror that has hung over me since we left the chamber begins to ebb away. I lean close, the better to savour the scent of him that swirls in the air around us as I comb my fingers through his hair.

He thinks my name. I look down at him as if he has spoken aloud, and he tips his head up.

I feel his breath on my lips as he exhales slowly, and I breathe him in. "You taste—"

"Edward," he breathes. _I want—_

It is without thought that I brush my lips against his, softly, briefly, and then I pull back, shocked at my own action, searching his face for anger and disgust.

There is none. Only his eyes have gone wider still and his lips part and a soft "Oh" escapes them.

We are both frozen, staring, until he moves, placing his hands upon my shoulders and pulling me into another kiss.

* * *

><p>Alec is beautiful like this. His mind, suddenly unguarded, is a tumult of joyful surprise and innocence.<p>

These types of kisses are new to both of us. These feelings are novel and fresh, and our shared inexperience leads to days of discovery. We spend them locked away from the world, and I push reality far from my mind.

Better to spend the time in laughter, in touches, in learning more about each other.

"I couldn't tell you," he insists as we lie together on the floor. He strokes the length of my arm, bunching the fabric of my shirt, wrapping his hand around my wrist before linking his fingers with mine. "I thought we were friends because neither of us had any interest in _this_." He lifts my hand away from our bodies and lets it fall. "I was so afraid you'd pluck it from my mind and leave." His voice grows soft at the end, and I know he still has that fear, but I can say nothing when he rolls toward me and kisses me again.

Time moves swiftly.

* * *

><p>The fact that we are both boys, while surprising, means nothing. When procreation is not an issue, where those who rule pre-date Christianity, such pairings are not liable for derision, and so with this knowledge I reach out and take Aro's hand without hesitation.<p>

The bland smile on his face shifts and reforms into surprise, but he recovers quickly. "How intriguing," he says softly, then reaches out to Alec at my side, sliding his fragile looking fingers over the boys cheekbone. "How very intriguing," he repeats, and lets his hands drop. "It seems patience is truly a virtue in this case, does it not?" Aro looks at me. "Write my dear friend Carlisle immediately," he says. "I'm sure he will be as delighted as I to hear this happy news."

Aro's delight is genuine. How better to ensure I stay than to have me emotionally attached to a member of his Guard.

He asks if I won't join them in their meal to celebrate.

I give him my thanks, but decline and take my leave, and with just a brush of my fingertips over the back of Alec's hand and a whispered 'goodbye' I slip out before Heidi arrives.

* * *

><p>He's waiting for me when I return from my hunt. The smell of human blood on him is faint, but still there.<p>

"You showered," I observe.

He crosses the room in an instant and comes to rest with one finger pressed against my chest, where a single drop of blood stains my shirt. "You made a mess."

"I was in a hurry."

The tension is thick. I can't tear my eyes away from his, and they are bright with new blood—human blood—but I don't care. I am unable to keep my hands off him, twining my fingers with his and pulling him close so his body is pressed to mine.

The echo of hormones long dead comes from nowhere and we cannot think. His mind is in turmoil, filled with images and sensations and need and urgency, and mine is no better. Time slides away as we kiss and taste and touch and feel, and given that we do not need to sleep, it was only a reminder that Heidi was due with her catch that had dragged us away before. Now is no different. The heat and frenzy ebbs and flows, rises and falls, as our fingers twine together, our arms wrap around each other. Hours, maybe minutes, maybe days pass, and we finally break apart, and he laughs and drops his eyes away, embarrassed because of the way he has been pulling at my hair.

"I like it," I say.

I steer him backward as he spreads his hands over my stomach, stroking upward, then I push him down.

I'm about to slide onto the couch beside him when he takes hold of my hips and guides me to my knees between his legs. He shifts forward, spreading his thighs wide, and our bodies press together.

"What will you write in your letter?" he asks me.

All I can think about is his body hard against mine. The pressure sends thrills of excitement through me and I wrap my arms around his waist and push back. "I will tell Carlisle that I am happy. That you make me happy," I manage to say. "That you are wonderful, and you are beautiful, and I have found something I never thought I would have."

Alec smiles. "Tell him I am happy, too." He wraps one arm around my neck and braces the other hand on the couch as he lifts his legs and locks them around my hips.

He begins to move and his slow rocking sends me climbing quickly toward release.

When Alec comes, he breaks the couch and we fall to the floor. He's still crying out, shuddering, as I thrust against him and groan into my orgasm.

* * *

><p>Aro likes his place on the dais. He likes that he need only reach out and touch his fingertips to mine to read every mind in the room.<p>

This time I feel nothing when Felix and Demetri tear the unrepentant killer apart.

Alec and I run back to my room hand in hand and burst through the door.

"What on earth is that?" I ask as I look at the thing that now takes up half the room.

Alec laughs, a trace of nervous anticipation behind the sound. "I believe it's a bed, Edward." He steps up to the large, carved fourposter dressed with rich damask covers and piled high with large, soft pillows, and with two delicate fingers lifts up a square of paper. "It's a gift," he says, then turns to me. "Aro gives beds to all the mated pairs."

"Is that what we are?" I ask, because he's never said it before, never thought it.

"Marcus," Alec says, then shrugs and drops his eyes away. "I have nothing to measure against, but Marcus is never wrong."

His eyes flick up to mine, and he looks uncertain, a little fearful.

I search my memory, looking for those early weeks with Esme and Emmett to see if what I have experienced with Alec is anything like what Carlisle and Rose felt.

Their minds had been so full of the newborns then, but it had been different. Hunting often to appease their insatiable thirsts, making sure they didn't kill anyone—I had no true comparison either.

Yet my mind has always been on him. I have always wanted to be close to him, to touch him.

I smile, and pull Alec into my arms. "Marcus is never wrong," I agree, and I kiss Alec with more restraint than I've shown thus far. "But beds are for sleeping…" I tease.

Immediately, Alec's mind fills with thoughts of us upon the bed and I shiver and growl against his lips.

He realises immediately what he is doing, and with only a quick cringe of embarrassment he begins the fantasy again with purpose.

I can only bear it for a minute. "Stop."

"You want it," he insists. "So do I, Edward. There's no reason to delay."

He's right. Yet there is one thing I hope for before I take this final step. "Do you love me?" I ask.

He's never said the words, but when he says "Yes," I know it's true.

So I ask him to do the hardest thing a vampire of his age and history could ever contemplate. "Come hunting with me."

* * *

><p>I slow, letting Alec catch up and pass me. He hesitates only a moment, unsure, but then he leaps forward in a burst of speed and darts through the forest after the stag we flushed out.<p>

I drop out of a run and let him go, seeing through his eyes as he falls on the beast and sinks sharp teeth into the throat of the creature.

Animals fight for life in a different way from humans, and blood spills as he adjusts to the weight and movement of his prey. I step through the trees and see him with my own eyes. A wave of embarrassment hits his thoughts and he refuses to look at me as he drinks.

He drops the dead stag and steps back as I approach slowly.

"Not since I was a newborn have I made such a mess," he murmurs, looking down at his stained cuffs.

I lift my hands to his collar. "It's okay. Just take it off."

He looks up as he allows me to unbutton his shirt. "It's very strange." I search for some change in his eyes—but the blood of a single deer is not enough to alter them.

"I thought there was nothing you could teach me. You're so young—"

I roll my eyes. "Thanks."

"It's true. Yet you can teach me this. It's not quite as satisfying—but I can see myself living as you do. If I am with you."

He goes quiet, his mind a blank slate as he wipes it with a talent gained out of necessity. Then, as I slide his soiled shirt to the forest floor, he presses his body to mine. "Will you ever leave me?"

"Never," I say without hesitation.

"You'll stay?"

"For as long as you wish to be here."

He gazes up at me, and I lean down and press my lips to his.

"We could, perhaps, leave one day, couldn't we?"

"If that's what you want."

He sighs and melts into my arms. "Not yet. One day, perhaps. We have forever, after all."

* * *

><p>Alec lays face down on the bed. He wears nothing but an inviting smile that crinkles his eyes at the corners. His irises are a strange mix of red and gold that reminds me of autumn leaves.<p>

Summer is drawing to a close, and I have officially joined the Guard. New hooded robes hang in the antique wardrobe, one of the many pieces of fine furniture in our new, larger chamber. On the small table beside the door lies a letter to Carlisle informing him that I will not be returning to Forks at the end of the summer.

"I've waited long enough," Alec says, and he rolls to the side, stretching one arm beneath his head, bending one leg at the knee and pulling it up. The pose is conscious, enticing, and he smirks up at me. "Take off your clothes."

I can't take my eyes off the picture he makes as I shed my garments. He is beautiful, all long, smooth, slender limbs and softness. I leave my pants where they fall and slide onto the bed beside him.

His cocky smirk is gone. His lips hang open and his whole body moves with heavy breaths. Slowly he drags his eyes up from where they lingered on the lower half of my body. "Please touch me," he whispers, his voice husky and rough. "Please."

I place my hand on his bent knee. Very slowly I move it up his thigh and over the curve of his backside. I let it linger there as I pull him into a kiss, and it's slow yet searing, passionate and yet very patient.

Alec wraps his arms around my neck and his leg over my hip, wriggling closer. We lay skin to skin—bare skin that has touched no other. Our bodies fit together perfectly and we moan and whimper as the slightest movement sends explosions of pleasure through our bodies.

I am almost frozen, afraid to move, as Alec stretches and arches, pushing his hips first forward, then back. My fingers slip between his cheeks, and he shudders and moans into my mouth. "More," he demands. "Please."

"We don't have to—"

"I want to. Please. I want to make love with you, Edward. I want to feel you inside me."

I moan as something within me clenches almost painfully. "All right," I whisper. "Yes."

* * *

><p>I explore every inch of Alec's body. I discover him with my fingers first, learning the places that make him squirm and cry out, then I start over again with my lips and tongue.<p>

He is ticklish behind the knees. He squirms and giggles, but the laughter fades as I move up his body, spreading his legs and nibbling my way up the inside of his thigh. I reach the crease at the top and pull back to his other knee, and his cry of outrage falls to laughter again.

This time I don't pull away. My lips and tongue taste the soft skin of his sac, tracing the line that divides it, then I drag my tongue the length of him and I revel in the sounds he makes and the feel of his fingers tightening in my hair.

Slowly I lower my mouth down around him.

"No, no, no," he gasps, his fingers gripping tighter, trying to pull me off even as he thrusts into my mouth, and hours of teasing, tasting, and exploring culminates in a strangled cry as he stiffens and releases onto my tongue.

* * *

><p>"Let me touch you," he says, reaching, but I twist away and push him onto his stomach.<p>

"I'm not finished." I place soft kisses down his spine and over his tailbone.

"Oh," he breathes as I slide my tongue over his entrance. I do it again, and he writhes beneath me, pressing his face into the blankets and letting out muffled cries and gasps as he pushes back against me.

My venom flows freely as I work him open with my tongue. Then I shift, laying beside him and capturing his lips with mine as I slide two fingers inside him. His hips rock against the mattress as my fingers move slowly within him, and I swallow his panicked protest and feel his body clamp down and pulse around my fingers as he comes again.

"I hate you," he whispers breathlessly. _I love you,_ his thoughts chant over and over again.

I chuckle and pull him into my arms.

* * *

><p>"Are you ready?" I ask when I can't ignore my aching erection any longer.<p>

Alec shakes his head. "No. You missed out, with all your exploring, and now you're going to have to—"

I growl and cover him with my body. "You're lying."

"Of course I'm lying," he laughs. "Please, Edward." He pulls his knees up, tilting his hips toward me. I barely have to think about what I'm doing, and as if by instinct, as if we were always meant to be connected this way, the head of my erection presses against his opening and my hips rock forward of their own accord.

He gasps as I press into him, throwing his head back, exposing his pale throat to me.

The head slips in, and I freeze. "Oh," I whimper, overwhelmed by the tightness, the heat. Then unable to stop myself, I push in further, until my hips hit the back of his thighs and he arches off the bed and lets out a low, drawn-out groan before he collapses back onto the mattress.

I force myself to remain still. Finally he opens his ochre eyes wide and rasps, "Move—"

My hips jerk forward, he cries out, and I push his knees into his chest.

I have some control now—a shred of it at least—and I pull out, slow, almost all the way, then thrust back inside. I find a rhythm and I find his thoughts, and I use them to guide me.

He comes apart beneath me, grunting, crying out, screaming with every thrust, coming up to meet me. I lose myself, crashing my lips to his, and the taste of him pushes me over the edge. Every fibre of me contracts and bursts open and the entire world beyond him ceases to exist. I'm lost in a single moment of utter divinity and he is my salvation.

The world slowly returns, and I look down into his eyes. They are wide, and he blinks several times as if in awe. "That was worth the wait," he says, very softly, and he bites his lip as he drops his lashes over his eyes. "Can we do it again?"


End file.
